Breaking the heart of the home team is becoming a habit for Justin Brownlee.
The 37-year-old Brownlee struck anew as he delivered yet another clutch performance to lead Gilas Pilipinas to a heart-stopping 95-88 overtime victory over Saudi Arabia in the playoff of the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup on Tuesday at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah.
With Gilas staring at a painful defeat with a 76-79 deficit in the final eight seconds of regulation, Brownlee unloaded a heavily-contested three-pointer off the defense of Marzouq Almuwallad to send the game into overtime with only 3.7 seconds left, much to the disbelief of the massive and noisy home crowd.
In the extra period, young guns Dwight Ramos and Kevin Quiambao stepped up to seal the victory and forge a battle with reigning champion Australia for a spot in the semifinals of this prestigious continental showpiece.
Brownlee, who finished with 29 points on a sizzling 11-of-16 shooting from the field, admitted that he has a penchant for delivering the dagger when the game is on the line.
“These are the moments every player dreams of: Going wire to wire in an atmosphere like Saudi had today,” said Brownlee, who has been delivering big baskets since joining Barangay Ginebra in the Philippine Basketball Association as a replacement import in 2016.
“I can’t say if it’s clutch genes or something I developed. I just think that, as a player, if you see the opportunity, you just have to go after it.”
But nailing a dagger straight into the heart of the home team is nothing new for Brownlee.
Brownlee also engineered a fightback from a 20-point deficit before delivering big three-pointers down the stretch to help Gilas eke out a thrilling 77-76 victory over powerhouse China in the semifinals of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2023.
Brownlee’s heroics were so shocking, so painful to the Chinese that some of them were seen crying as they were watching the Filipinos celebrate on their homecourt. Gilas Pilipinas eventually beat a familiar foe in Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Jordan in the finals to win their first Asian Games gold medal since 1962.
That’s why Gilas coach Tim Cone was no longer surprised seeing Brownlee wanting the ball to knock down the equalizer against a surprisingly good Saudi Arabian squad.
“They posed a lot of problems for us, and by all rights, they had the game won except for the guy sitting to my right (Brownlee), he’s the big shot,” said Cone, a firm believer of Brownlee’s never-say-die mentality.
“And if you know his history, that’s not unusual. He’s been hitting big shots.”